I am a non-Indigenous person of settler immigrant heritage. Northwestern Ontario is my home. I do not want a nuclear waste project to be built in between my home and that of my daughter, and I do not want the transportation of nuclear wastes, however they may be packaged, adding fossil fuel fumes and hazardous traffic on our already very treacherous highways. The fact that transportation has been excluded from the impact assessment, after we have been told that it would be addressed during that process, undermines trust . It undermines trust in the entire project and strongly implies that we should not believe what we are told about any of it.  

I hold a Master of Education degree from Lakehead University with a specialization in environmental and sustainability education. I hold two undergraduate degrees, one in Indigenous learning,  and an Honours Bachelor of Fine Arts. Prior to that, I trained in Swedish remedial massage and associated modalities which I practised for 25 years. I have a deep personal interest in science and I marvel at the way that all beings, including rocks and minerals share so much in common with humans. I invite you to consider my perspective.

Our bodies are made of water and minerals. My Indigenous teachers have taught me (it is not confidential) that rocks are living entities. Rocks as well as water give us life. We depend on the elements that comprise them and we are intimately connected to them through their presence and circulation in our bodies. I understand the Earth as being similar to the human body. Evolution tells us that all things, including plants, have shared so much with us at cellular and molecular levels since the beginning of life on this planet. I urge you to consider that rocks are a living expression of life. If even only for our own sakes, we need to recognize the rocks and offer them the respect that they deserve. As living entities, they have their own rhythms and their own sense of time. We know that the continents move; we know that tectonic plates collide, at a geological pace. Can we bet that humans will be extinct already, before the invaded rock heaves another sigh?

We already know we are considering something very dangerous with nuclear power and the deadly, toxic waste it generates. We know that something as safe as technology can possibly develop must be discovered to help us cope with it and we hope that technology can help save us from ourselves. I believe that nuclear scientists continue to do their best to build something that works. I also believe that they do not see the whole picture. 

I implore you to think about the Earth as a living, breathing, moving entity with its own heart and sense of direction. What happens to the rock? Is computer modelling, based on a materialist, Western industrial science a truly fail-proof guarantee of success in nature? What happens to the rock, and is this the lasting impact that we want to leave? 

The dangers are inevitable, the costs astounding, and the alternatives not yet fully explored. Why do we continue making this waste? The true cost of flicking a light switch is not worth the conveniences we take for granted. We do have other methods of power generation, all of them much, much less expensive to the public. I join the call for a change of perspective that includes a sense of wonder for and connection with the planet, to live more responsibly upon it. Scientists continue to do their best to find a solution, but in geological time, this idea of burying nuclear waste is a very short-term, bandaid solution. Can we truly bet that human life will be over by the time what is buried starts to shift? And what about all the other life? Who are we to make this decision for others, human generations to come and the innocent, more-than-human beings?

I propose that we keep the waste where it is accessible so that it is retrievable when better, safer, less expensive, more ecologically oriented technical solutions are found. As humans, we have allowed this very challenging situation to occur, and it is now up to us to figure out how to steward this monster while we stop producing more. Keep the waste safely as it is being stored now. Keep it where it is produced und continue working for a solution that is just and fair for every living thing: In the long run, that is what is truly realistic.

Thank you for your consideration.